Her hand was warm and her eyes were merry.  What a night it was going to be.  Slipping through the alleys to the rendezvous point Denev and his foster-sister Gemya could feel the adrenaline pumping through their blood.  Tonight it would finally happen, they would pull of the prank, he could feel big things for tonight.  He squeezed her hand in excitement, the intense all consuming excitement that children were still capable of.  Had he been a true child, though, he would not have understood the importance and risk in their mission tonight, but he was still young enough to feel the thrill in it and not be caught up in everyday worries.  Finally reaching the dank ally corner behind the Nevens headquarters they found it deserted and he frowned wondering where his accomplices were.  It was impossible that they had forgotten, they had been planning and dreaming of this night for over a year, it was because of Denev himself that they had stalled so long.  So many things had come up to get in the way, but now tonight everything was perfect, they couldnt fail.  He heard small carefully shuffling steps and grinned at his friends as they came down the ally to meet them.  He locked eyes with his friend Tadel and they solemnly drew their daggers as one.  Saluting each with their blades they preformed their ritual greeting, a careful version of a duo blade dance where both people need to know where each other is going to be and what they are going to do.  They had done this countless times and had perfected it years ago so that neither one of them had gotten sliced or missed a stroke in as long a time.  Ending with a quick move where each pulls his blade back into the salute they embraced as true foster-brothers.  His and Tad's relationship was somewhat more, they were Taelkin, oath brothers bound to protect for life.  The group of half a dozen other pranksters watched in awe as usual despite the regularity of this ritual.  Most of his and Tad's following consisted of other foster siblings or of random people met in their adventuring.  Many of these would never have the money for a dagger or a sword due to their low-blood and none had the training to perform anything similar to his and Tadels ritual.  Smiling slyly and somewhat arrogantly Denev motioned silently for them to follow him through the maze of ally ways.  Him and Tadel exchanged a look of challenge and victory, it was tonight!  Reaching the wall of the Royal Deltav museum they found the foot holds in the bricks and quickly scaled the wall.  Moving along the top of the narrow wall Denev led the way to where the wall came with in jumping distance of the museum roof.  Turning behind him to confront Tad he found that Gem was actually behind him and Tad was behind her.  Giving her a gentlemanly hand over onto the red tiled roof ahead of him he turned to Tad for a quick word.

            "We just head over the roof and to the chimney on the left, from there we drop down to the Crown room and we have about 10 mins to retrieve our goal and retreat up the chimney again, after that it doesnt matter," Said Denev under his breath.

            "I know, I know.  We've been over this a ton of times! Just go!," Tad replied with a greedy glint in his eye.

            Denev shrugged and made the quick hop across onto the darkly lit roof where Gem waited.  He saw the promise ring on her pinky sparkle briefly, the one he had given her.  This caused him to finger his matching ring once.  He felt a soft surge of possessiveness followed quickly by the feeling of being possessed.  They were in this together -- the prank, all of life -- it would always be him Gem and Tad, the others hardly mattered.  The last of those others made it to the roof and they slowly stole across the darkly tiled red roof to where the chimney protruded from the roof as their entrance to the forbidden, their entrance to the future.  It was a tight fit even for ones as small as they were and they didnt have to brace themselves hard against the walls to keep from falling.  They all made their way down the chimney into the Crown exhibit room where it was only softly lit through the windows by the moonlight.  Their soft soled boots made hardly a sound on the polished white marble floors, but still they walked carefully.  They had only 7 minutes now actually to steal a crown and be off before the night guard made his rounds to here.  They made a quick inventory of all the possible crowns and huddled in a circle back by the fireplace to argue over which to take.

           "Tir Gevel's, his is huge!  No one could miss it when we put in on that old statue outside the palace later," Remarked one boy.

            "What about the First Tirs? He's is so very famous that it would be a prank to go down in history," Said someone to Denev's right, he couldnt recognize everyone in the gloom and in their chosen thieves garb.

            "No! his is booby trapped I think, at least it should be," Said Tad, "I say we steal Tir Sevral's, the last king of a few years ago.  He was dethroned because he didn't really have the Heir's Mark, but he still has a following, people who want things back to the way they were under his rule.  Everyone would think it was an act of the underground or of revolution.  It would be more than a silly prank..." Denev smiled at that idea, the Deltav underground would surely take responsibility for it too.  He was drawing up a picture of what would happen when he heard a small voice give another suggestion.

            "I say we should take the First Tira's.  Surely it couldnt be booby trapped, and its gorgeous.  We want this to be a phenomenon...not a social upheaval.  Nev can we take that one?  Please?," Gem asked looking up at him with her big amber eyes.  He melted.

            "Of course Gem dear.  If you want that crown well get it for you, He responded smiling down at her."

            "We?? I'm not so sure it isn't booby trapped like the First Tir's...and if you go for that one...ok, but youre on your own for snagging it," Retorted Tad.  Denev looked at him with a calm superiority, he himself was willing to do something his Taelkin wasnt.

            "Ok then, I'll be right back," he replied.

            "Wait, can I come to? I want to see you grab it," Gem put in.

            "Oh sure," he said magnanimously.  Surely one person along wouldn't change anything.  He grabbed her hand in his and headed off to the main exhibit of the Crown room, the crowns of the First Tiran.  Looking up at the tall solid silver crown with a huge scarlet toruv stone in it he could picture it on Gem's forehead as she sat peacefully on the Tira's throne.  If he got the Heir's Mark when he reached his adulthood she would be his queen and that would be her crown.  Lifting it slowly off its pedestal he turned to Gem his promise mate and sank to one knee.

            "Gem, love, will you be my Tira?" Denev softly said.  He was rewarded by a delighted smile and a somewhat slurred affirmative due to speed of delivery.  He grinned and rose, placing the silver crown squarely on her head thinking to himself that it made her strawberry blonde hair glow in the moonlight. 

Suddenly he heard running feet from the main corridor close to where his friends stand, or rather had stood because they had already taken flight and were halfway across the room towards them.  The other exit lay just to his left and he spun and dashed for it.  The others were already going much faster than both him and Gem and they quickly passed them.  Tad hung back a pace to urge them on and even grabbed Gem's hand to speed her up towards the doors just ahead.  Tad looked past Denev at the approaching guards and his face got a suddenly stony set.

          He awoke in a pile of straw.  Or the thought he did.  There were a few times he had slept out in the stables; his favorite horse had been injured on one of his adventures, he was being punished by his tutors, or he was being tested by his tutors.  So waking up in the hay was not all too alarming.  But this was a very thin layer of hay, and when he moved he discovered that it was not earth beneath the straw but cold stone.  This was odd enough that he sat up and looked around him suspiciously.  When his quick glance around showed him four close stone walls with a single barred door in one he almost passed out from shock. No that was wrong, his realization that he was in prison just lined up perfectly with his attack off dizziness due to the concussion he had gotten when Tad had tripped him.  Tad had tripped him.  He suddenly remembered last night, though due to his concussion it was a blur of sparkly crowns in the Crown room and two overlaying pictures of Gem shining with beauty when he had crowned her his Tira, and the hard set face of his Taelkin as he had left Denev behind for the Neven, as a scapegoat.  Was the highest-ranking leader of their following nothing but a scapegoat?  His pride raged at this.  He was a Shad, a prince of his realm, higher than Shyd, higher than any Liran, higher than any of the rest!  But he was the only one to be punished, he was certain the others had fled successfully with some of the Neven busy detaining him.  The rest of him that wasn't caught up in outrage at the injustice was alternately fuming and feeling betrayed at his friend Tad.  Tad had broken his promise as Taelkin; he was no friend of his.  He was an oath breaker, a title worse even than murderer.  Nev felt his stomach twist at the thought of his friend's treachery and he reached for his blade so that when he found something to take his anger out on he could demolish it.  But of course being in jail his single weapon had been confiscated, he suddenly felt naked and helpless.  He was a Shad!  They couldnt make any charges stick because his father was the very ruling Tir!  Why hadn't they just sent him off home to await his father's punishment?  Was this his father's punishment, to stay in jail cut off from everyone?  Had he still been unconscious when they pulled him into the palace to face the Tir?  He had so many questions and no answers.  Pulling himself to his feet and fighting the wave of nausea that threatened to pull him back to the ground he pounded on the door demanding to be answered.

         "Hello?!  Anyone?!  I'm not supposed to be here, I should be at home!!  Hello??"

          After what seemed like ages someone bustled down he musty corridor outside his cell.

         "What's the racket about?  Shut yer trap or you ain't getting any meals today I say!," Said the grimy ragged jail guard.

         "I'm Shad Denev!  What am I doing in jail?  I demand to talk to my father.  You can't do anything to me without making him punish you!," Denev declared loudly.  Too bad for him that the guard was used to nonsense rambling from the prisoners and paid him no heed.

         "Heh, yer as much a Shad as I am the Tir.  Look at yer crude clothes.  You aint even a Laran I bet!," Sneered the guard haughtily.

         "I..." Denev wasn't sure how to explain his clothes without admitting to his crime of breaking into the Museum. "Shadan can dress as they please...sir," he added the last reluctantly, figuring the guard would respond better to coaxing because as they say down in the slums 'Threats dont mean nothin' if yer on the wrong side of the bars'.  "Just send a messenger to his Highness and things will be cleared up right away, I swear it," Denev added sulkily.

         "Oh you swear it do ya?  If I took the word of every lowlife who gets tossed up in here I wouldn't have lasted a week as Guard Keeper.  If you are who you say you are then I'm sure yer dadda the Tir will be happy to see you again when he recognizes you at yer trial tomorrow eve.  Till then this is how things stand; You will shut up for the rest of your stay or no food, you will speak to me with the respect your betters deserve, and when the boys come to take you to the Palace you will cooperate so we don't have to beat you senseless and drag you every foot of the way.  Got it?," The Keeper looked at him inquiringly, haughtily, and Nev would have given anything to be able to wipe the look off the man's face with his fist.  But for now he had no choice and he nodded numbly, which caused his head to swim more and this time he didnt fight it as he dropped to the ground dizzily.  For the rest of that day and the next he ate what was put in front of him and relieved himself in the leaky pail in the corner and spent the rest of the time in numb nothingness.  He didn't even waste time thinking about revenge on Tad, or where the crown was right now, he just stared at the wall silently.  So quiet was he that the Keeper grunted once in passing and went and got a stick to poke him with.  When this prodding got a groan and a slight toss of his head the Keeper moved along satisfied.  Close to the time when he figured that the boys would come for him he was so lost in thought that he only dully felt a pain in the back of his leg.  When it continued and worsened he twitched reflexively, which made it much worse.  Worse enough in fact that he sat up quickly scaring off the rat which had gnawed a small hole in the back of his leg having thought him dead or injured.  He felt the small hole with a repulsed thought for what else the rat had been chewing on today.  Shuddering nauseously he lay down once more, but this time on his back.  Once more he sank into a trance-like state where his thoughts were a big nothing.

           When the guards came to cart him off to his trial they mistook him for dead and were about to carry him to the body dump out back till he groaned in protest when one of them slung him over his shoulder roughly.  Putting him back in a standing position the guards propelled him towards the jailors cart.  Detachedly he felt a stirring of wounded pride to be carted around like a criminal.  But his mind was wandering in the halls of the unfathomable, where best friends betray and all is as it should not be.  He couldnt remember any more of his ride through the city but he recalled vividly the orange-gold eyes of his quiet elder brother Dison piercing through him as he was taken through the main gate.  As a grown Shad it was Dison's station to over see the main gate to the palace grounds.  Before too long his older parent-like brother would come to his rooms expecting an explanation for this odd scene.  Denev dreaded this occurrence; Dison had a way of making everyone feel childish and naïve and what Dison wanted Dison got.  It was to everyone's disappointment that Dison had not developed the Heir's Mark upon reaching his majority five years ago, at age fifteen.  Their father, Tir Tadarv, would never be content with any of his children as Heir now that his favored child could not inherit. 

         Tadarv, Tir of Deltav, sighed between clenched teeth.  For this part of his morning he passed judgment on the higher case criminals.  They all looked so alike; wild, ferocious, disheveled, dirty.  All the criminals he saw blurred together in his mind so that who he passed as guilty or innocent was merely a moment's whim.   They, the scum or his glorious Realm, had no right to disrupt the peace of the very capital of Deltav.  After this session ended he would go out to the Palace Neven's quarters and work off his steam with the more skilled officials.  It was so unjust that he was plagued with people like...like this Lervi Granda, his current case.  The court lawyer had been droning on about the particulars of this and the details of that and about how this singular case was especially important; they always said that.  It was probably to look smart and important in from of the witnesses to the trial that they even opened their mouths.  It would do the grungy convicts better to speak for themselves.  Tadarv gestured impatiently, he really wanted his fingers wrapped around the hilt of his hefty sword, to be exchanging blows with the Neven trainers as most men exchanged greetings.  He had three more men to save or condemn.  As far as he was concerned, currently, they were all guilty.  Good thing he tended to leave sentencing to someone else.

        "Enough!  I've heard enough.  This man in guilty, no doubt about it.  Next please!" Tadarv announced over the room.  The lawyer gaped at Tadarv.  He had been in the middle of explaining some obscure point in depth and doing a poor job of it as he was busier winking at the lovely ladies in the back row than trying to argue his client's case.

        "But...but sir I wasn't done," he seemed greatly appalled that anyone would cut him off.  As if shocked that someone in the world was not as fond of hearing him talk as he himself was.

        "Do I care?  I've made my decision now out!," Tadarv added in a menacing tone, waiting for the next poor sot to be dragged in.

       "F-Father?  I'm guilty, just get on with punishing me," said a voice from the entrance in the corner of the room.  Tadarv moved his eagle eyes toward the voice and appraised the brown haired youth who called him father.  He was about five foot but close to fully grown, as a boy of seventeen or eighteen should be.  The habitual arrogant tilt of the chin screamed Shadan to everyone in the room despite the fact that his dark downcast eyes would meet no ones.  The face was not familiar, but that could be said for about half his 50 or so kids, especially the younger ones of this youth's age.

        "Boy, you call me father?," Tadarv asked quietly, it could be some nut or another person looking for a profit somehow.  Though the criminal status seemed to rule out the last choice.

        "You are my father, Your Highness," he said with obvious resentment coated in fresh bitterness, "Ask m'lady Deti if any of the children in her care, your darling kids, went missing last night," there was a hush in the hall.  Tadarv grated his teeth at the idea of asking some lady Rel for information on his own kids.  He did regret that he was too much a Tir to be a father.  He had tried that with some of his kids- Dison was a marvel of dignity and wisdom with enough will power to get anything accomplished -but without the Heir's Mark it was all for nothing.  Tadarv could see no graceful way out of this mess he was in.  Or rather he could see one; that he declare this youth a crazy and have him hanged, but if he was his son that that would not do at all.  If he wasn't though...then his life was nothing.

       Suddenly something caught his eye.  The kid had tossed his head to get the hair out of his eyes while his hands were still bound.  If Tadarv wasnt mistaken there was a definite mark behind his left ear; possible Heir's Mark if he was his son.  Standing up forcefully and striding over to the youngster he grabbed the right side of his head with one strong hand and angled his head to the right with the other.  Sure enough...the Heir's Mark.

       "Well I'll be damned," Tadarv exclaimed dazedly.  The kid struggled out of his grip, which was weakened with shock.

       "What?  What?!," He demanded indignantly. "You have no right to mishandle me, and he spat at the Tirs feet."  Tadarv backhanded him instinctively and blinked in regret as the youth toppled with a cry and was knocked out on the smooth black tile floor.  Sprawled in an untidy heap with his neck at a most painful angle the Heir's Mark was clearly visible to all the viewers and the recent hush became an excited babble.

        "Um sir?," One of the jailors pitched his voice to be clear about the rabble.  "Sir...the boy already had a concussion from the robbery, the robbery he was charged with, if he is your son-," at this point the guard glanced back at the boys Mark, -Because he is your son and hurt, twice, perhaps you should get a healer?"

        "Oh...um yes of course.  Be kind and fetch one for me, just down that hall," and the guard hurried off to where he pointed.  He left behind a dazed Tir, a battered Shadan, two nervous guards, and a court full of gossipy witnesses to the scene.

         Nev trod heavily across the floor in front of his room.  He had never known boredom until now.  For his punishment he was under house arrest, locked up in his room.  There were no challenges in his room, all his books and writing had been stolen from him  before he awoke painfully sprawled on his bed.  He had been angered by the pain in his shoulder because of his wrists being bound too long.  He had been hungry for real food and company.  He had started to make plans for how to extract revenge from the body of his ex-Taelkin.  He had done all that until he became aware of the state of his room when he woke up.  Stripped of everything that had marked his room as his it was bare-walled and blank as an unwritten page.  They had taken his stuff, everything that he didn't need.  They had left a bed, but not his, a table and chair that were his, and two small rugs to cover patches of the cold stone floor.  So altered was his room that he would have sworn it wasnt his, except there were small tell tale signs; the crack in his window where Tad had hit it with a stone to get him to come down, scuffs and scratches around that he knew the stories behind, and most importantly the loose tile in the closet that held his life's treasures.  When he found his horde intact he sighed in relief, they could rob his room of its identity but they hadn't stolen its heart.  Removing his horde and spreading it on the floor he sorted through it calming himself.  There was the collar of the little cat, Ferocity, he had had when he was younger, till his older brother Gesav had drowned her in the oil marsh.  He fingered the small gray and silver collar that just barely reached around his wrist then shoved it down in the bottom of his jacked pocket.  There was a crimson leaf from the forests of Geldam, which he visited once a year.  Trees don't grown in Deltav so this treasure was one of his rarest.  There was a braid of flaming red hair six inches long, it was his sister Leate's.  She was his younger sister, six months younger, and they had played everywhere together, almost like twins they had been.  She'd gone strange a year ago upon turning sixteen, all quiet and alien.  About two weeks later she had run away to serve the Church of DoraNeli, Goddess of the Eternal Flame.  She'd left a note saying only "DoraNeli needs me more," he had her note in his horde too.  He also had a more recent note from her, just a few days old, saying she had survived her Cleansing and she was now Priestess Leate.  He was happy for her because she had found her calling and gone for it, he could only hope to do so much in his life.

Tadel Shyd Vendes Terlod Deltav Nimare Merendi

           Denev stared at the scrap of paper with his Taelkin's full name written in Tad's own blood.  Tad had one of these with Nev's full name written in Nev's blood, exchanged as a part of the traditional partnership ritual.  He wasnt sure whether to burn it or what, it is said that such a paper held power over its maker, Nev saved it just incase.  From its hiding place under the letter with Tad's name on it he retrieved Gem's bracelet.  It was a smallish gold hoop set with many evenly spaced small gray and silver flecked stones.  He had never seen anything so beautiful, excepting Gem herself.  Gem had lost it three months ago and had recruited him, Tad, and their whole team to scour the Palace and Mansion from top to bottom.  Nev had found it after dinner one evening under her chair while running around with Tad.  Tad had been puzzled as to why Nev didnt just return it right away but he kept quiet because Gem's quest gave them weeks of fun times.  Nev had been planning on returning it or placing it to be found but now Gem had given up on it and it had found a home among his loot.  The seventh and last treasure was his favorite.  It was a small inch tall statue of a lady with long curly hair about her shoulders and wearing an elegant dress of a foreign Realm's fashion.  She was detailed down to the last hair and he had spent so much time puzzling over her that he had her face imprinted on his mind.  This figurine was intriguing because it was made of a dark black stone that was translucent, or it usually was, a few times he had found her silver and sparkling as a mirror, twice she was solid black and almost glowing, and just once she had been perfectly clear.  He had no clue who she was or where she was from because he had found this tiny lady on one of his adventures in the cellars.  It had been a confusing trip from the start.  He had gotten lost for five minutes through this one door in the cellar.  Everything beyond the door was shifting and his very thoughts seemed to be reflected around him in the mists.  Some of the Rel children in the Palace speak of an 8^th state called Urzas where dreams come true and power is bestowed.  Nev had stumbled around bewildered then found the lady standing up on a small green pedestal veined with gray.  After picking her up curiously he had slipped and started to suffocate in the very air as if it was suddenly water.  He had woken up feverish and in his bed with a nurse.  They said a pair of Rel boys had found him sick in the cellar clutching the small lady.  He loved the mystery surrounding her.

            He lounged on his bed for most of the rest of that day staring up at his red tile ceiling.  They could strip the room of its items but the room still held its natural luxury, obviously the suite of a Shad.  The ceiling was a mosaic of red and orange tiles in a fiery mosaic, it usually brought him some satisfaction to stare at it.  The walls were red marble veined with black, a rare stone even for Deltav and he'd had to bargain with one of his siblings for a long time to trade rooms with him.  The mood of impending doom was well worth whatever he had given up, he hardly remembered any of it.  The floor was done in black and red tiles in a mosaic also, but this one was geometric and not as...intimidating, as the one on his ceiling, but it was part black, enough said.  So even though he had merely a bed, chair, and table in his room they were good enough for Liran, and his room still held the same red rage it always had.  His room only felt like a prison because that was what it had become.  Any other day he would have been content to sulk in his room for days or weeks at a time with maids brining him his meals.  Now, though, he had no choice but to stay, he wanted that choice.  They had installed a lock on the outside of his door and had guards rotating shifts outside.  His crimson draped windows set with red tinted glass were a good dozen stories above the ground and he had found out long ago that the Palace's red outer side was as slick as oil.  There was no way out, he was stuck here at his father's order.  Maids or Menservants, all Rel of course, came and went at meal times with trays of exactly what was being served in the main hall.  The Rel would not take the time to cook up a different meal, no matter how simple, for an imprisoned Shadan when they could just dish out some of what they had already whipped up.  So he was imprisoned but not truly deprived, the jail cell at the Neven's Office had been far worse, right now he felt at home.  He had stowed all his treasures back under the black floor board in his closet -still packed with all of his wardrobe- just incase some Rel decided to tattle on him and he got them taken away.  Often times though, in the past few days since his house arrest, he had taken to placing one of them in his pocket as a kind of luck charm or comfort, each held a story of his past, a bit of his identity.  Holding one of them brought him strength and sanity when he thought he would burst and jump out his window just to end the monotony.  On the morning of the fourth day of his in house exile the morning Maid, Delia, came with more than food and a few minutes of chatter.  She brought with her a sealed envelope, a smaller simply folded message, and several sheaves of paper and a pen.  She said the envelope was from the Tir and the message from his brother the Shad Dison and that the paper was for him to write responses.  He was surprised at the change of routine of eating and staring at the ceiling and was not annoyed that they had sent letters instead of coming in person.  Dison's letter explained his absence; all Shadan and citizens of Deltav, excepting the Rel, were forbidden to visit him.

To Shad Denev from your elder brother Shad Dison, I am most curious as to why you were caught in the theft of one of the ancient Tiran crowns.  Father is in a very distracted mood as of late.  He goes on and on about thieves inheriting the Realm.  Am I to believe you have received the Heir's Mark?  My congratulations and apologies.  I am well aware it will not be an easy burden to bear.  I would like to meet with you to discuss the above in more detail unfortunately Tir Tadarv has forbidden any of us, those of Deltav, to visit you in your quarters.  I will attempt to talk our Father around to allowing me to visit you.  You must be terribly bored and surely Father does not think I will conspire with you.     

Best of Luck, Dison Shad of Deltav

            Denev stared at his first letter.  Dison sounded just as uptight in his letters as he did face to face.  He wasnt sure whether he wanted him as a visitor or not.  True he was bored out of his mind and somewhat lonely, though he wouldnt admit it.  But Dison was no ones favorite brother; he made you feel young and naïve.  StillDenev decided to hope his brother would convince his father around, some company was better than none, and it wasnt like Dison was asking to move in with him.  He could handle an hour or so of an overly parent-like sibling if it wasnt for forever.  Next he moved onto his fathers note and this one made him think that Dison would fail in his attempt to visit Denev, and that he would never be free from his prison.

                        From Tir Tadarv of Deltav to Heir of Deltav Shad Denev, I am much ill at ease that the son of mine to be graced with the Heirs Mark is marked also a thief and trickster.  It would be better had you had the Tiras crown with you upon capture.  Instead we must know who your accomplices are and we must bargain with them to retrieve the crown.  You are not allowed to have any guests in your suite during the duration of the absence of that crown.  Once you inform us as to who helped you pull off your travesty of a prank you will be allowed visitors but not be set free.  Once the crown is safely returned to the Royal Museum you will have all of your freedoms back, along with the glories owed the Heir of the Realm.   I will summon you to a trail three days hence; if you do not give up your coconspirators at that time you alone will be charged with the crime and dealt the punishment. 

                           Awaiting your response, Tir Tadarv of Deltav